My questions are:
What kind of wood is parawood that I was told the chairs were made of? And what kind of stain should I use to refinish the chairs?
Thank You.

Edward Itle- Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA

The cruel fate of the now extinct Blue Nauga :-(

Hi, Edward.

'Parawood' sounds like 'Paramedic' & 'Paratransport', so I thought 'parawood' was an imitation wood, and that maybe a Blue Nauga gobbled up the last of the parawood shoots. But actually, parawood is real wood from the Heva Brasiliensis, the rubber tree.

Regarding your question of how to finish it though, I must leave that to those who have actually done it. Good luck.

Ted Mooney, P.E. RETfinishing.comPine Beach, New Jersey

(2004)

Q. I own and operate a furniture finishing business, in San Diego. I came across your site looking for material on parawood. I am very familiar with parawood, we see it's stubborn dense wood grain mostly in inexpensive chairs and tables. This is my question: Does anyone know how to prevent "fish-eyes" when finishing parawood? I'm told that due to the parawood tree producing latex, that when the latex dries after curing and prepping for furniture manufacturing, it leaves a hard semi-transparent resin like knot. Needless to say any effort to stain over it is near impossible.

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